Donald W. Buchanan was born in 1908 in Lethbridge, Alberta. He was the son of Senator William Ashbury Buchanan, the publisher of the Lethbridge Herald. He studied Modern History at the University of Toronto and Oxford University. In 1934, he received a fellowship from the Carnegie Corporation to train in museum administration. Following his research fellowship, Buchanan founded the National Film Society of Canada, as well as he worked for the Canadian Radio Commission (now the CBC).
Buchanan was always involved in the arts and he was a firm believer in making the arts accessible to the public. In 1963, Donald Buchanan, and his brother Hugh, offered many fine works of art to the City of Lethbridge. This became the first significant public art collection ever to exist in Lethbridge. He believed that art was meant to be shared and enjoyed by all. After leaving the Canadian Radio Commission, Buchanan worked for the National Film Board, where he established the stills division; from 1947 until 1960 he was employed by the National Gallery of Canada, serving as director of the Industrial Design Division (1947-1953). His work with the National Industrial Design Committee and the curated the revolutionary exhibition “Design for Use in Canadian Products” (1946) which changed the standards of Canadian art.
Donald W. Buchanan served as the Associate Director of the National Gallery of Canada, and took a leave of absence to explore his own artistic endeavors of photography while travelling throughout Europe. Buchanan returned to the Gallery in 1963 as a member of its Board of Trustees, and he became the Director of the International Fine Arts Exhibition at Expo ’67 in Montreal. In the last few years of his life, his friends recall him being busier than ever, organizing the exhibition. He never was able to see the fruits of his labor, however, because of his sudden death in 1966 after being struck by a car in Ottawa. His legacy centered on the accessibility of art to the public and his impact on the art community in Lethbridge.